William Castle used the previous year's big hit "Psycho" as a launching
pad for his next Columbia chiller, "Homicidal." His frequent writer
Robb White came up with a daring, even brash idea that, for most
audiences, works just as intended. It will not be revealed here. The
result is one of Castle's best films, taut, involving and suspenseful;
it's not until you think about it later that you realize the story is
pretty thin, and that the cast seems strangely underpopulated. The
first time through, for most it does its job with dispatch and even
some sense of style. It was good enough that the reviewer for "Time"
magazine grandly (and wrongly) declared it better than "Psycho."

A sardonic, beautiful blonde arrives in Ventura, California, one night;
her name, she says, is Emily (Jean Arless). She approaches a bellboy at
her hotel, asking -- to his great shock -- that he marry her right
away. The marriage will immediately be annulled, but she'll pay him a
thousand dollars. They go to a local justice of the peace -- whom Emily
stabs to death, then flees Ventura for the Danish-themed community of
Solvang. (There's location shooting in both locales, unusual for
Castle.) At the old house where she lives, she verbally tortures
elderly, wheelchair-bound and mute Helga (Eugenie Leontovich).

Later, we meet Miriam (Patricia Breslin) and her fiance Karl (Glenn
Corbett), as well as Warren, Miriam's half-brother. Police investigate
the murder of the justice of the peace, but can't make contact with
Emily.

"Homicidal" has a very different feel from any of Castle's similar
films; it's crisp and compact, and Robb White's dialog isn't as arch as
usual -- it serves the purpose and keeps the story moving. Castle's
gimmick this time was the "Coward's Corner;" near the end, a clock
appears on screen, giving audience members a short time to get to the
"Coward's Corner" and ask for their money back. Initially, wiseass kids
would sit through the film twice, then ask for their money back at the
end of the second screening, so theaters time-dated tickets. Castle
himself appears briefly before the opening credits.

The acting is standard for a medium-to-low-budget film of the period;
Jean Arless is particularly good in a hard-to-play role. But though
there's nothing wrong with Eugenie Leontovich's performance, she's
required to play the terrified Helga in a peculiar manner: she
communicates by rapping on the arm of her wheelchair, but randomly --
she doesn't even use the standard once-for-yes, twice-for-no code,
making the character seem somewhat deranged.

There are only two murders in "Homicidal," and no character who's
really homicidal at all; this is one of Robb White's tricks. The title
was chosen, of course, for its resemblance to "Psycho," and there are
few shots in the film that are deliberately reminiscent of Hitchcock's
classic -- a bathtub/shower with the curtain drawn, for example. Those
are, one assumes, primarily to reassure the audience that even if
Castle is picking Hitch's pockets, he is not hiding the fact, but
impishly acknowledging it.

In 1944, Castle directed the B-movie "When Strangers Marry" that turned
out so well it got some top-of-the-bill bookings, and was on a few
ten-best lists. Didn't do him any good with his studio; he was right
back to directing B-movie series such as The Whistler and the Crime
Doctor, and other, non-series cheapies like "New Orleans Uncensored,"
"Johnny Stool Pigeon" and "Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven." He even
directed a 3D movie, "Fort Ti," so the idea of gimmicks must have been
planted fairly early. He delighted in his self-created image of the
bargain-basement Hitchcock, going on publicity tours for some of the
horror films and meeting with fans across the nation. Eventually, the
horror trend died out; he tried to keep his hand in here and there, but
his last two films as a director, "Project X" (1968) and "Shanks"
(1974) were barely distributed. His biggest triumph in Hollywood, as it
turned out, wasn't as a director, but as the producer of "Rosemary's
Baby" (in which he has a brief, amusing cameo). After publishing his
questionable autobiography, "Step Right Up! I'm Gonna Scare the Pants
Off America" (it seems to have been ghost-written), Castle died in
1977, leaving an odd hole in movies that no one has tried to fill,
although Joe Dante's "Matinee" is partly a tribute to Castle, with John
Goodman as a Castle-like entrepreneur.

"Homicidal" was motivated by a desire to pry "Psycho"-like grosses out
of American audiences; no one was out to make art. But it still remains
one of the best films in the legacy of William Castle, schlockmeister
extraordinaire.